


Beyond Life and Death

by meyari



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: M/M, Resurrection, Telepathic Bond, Underage Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-29
Updated: 2013-04-29
Packaged: 2017-12-09 22:32:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/778722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meyari/pseuds/meyari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where lifebonds can form between rare individuals, Kon and Cassie help Robin deal with the surprise resurrection of his lifebond and all the fallout that comes from it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Beyond Life and Death

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this quite a while ago, back in Nov 2011. I always intended to expand it but I never did. I don't think that I ever will so I'm posting it here for people to read and enjoy.

Kon wasn't really sure what the meeting was about but he knew that Cassie had it under control. Their bond wasn't terribly strong since they hadn't had sex yet but it was strong enough for him to have a good sense of her satisfaction with the plan for the cleanup and to be pretty sure that he wasn't supposed to be paying attention right now. He never did really pay attention to this sort of thing. Cassie always let him know if he was just going to be muscle or if he was supposed to actually contribute.

Robin was in the thick of it, talking about angles and leverage and something about tensile strength that Cassie was nodding at. Instead of trying to figure it out, Kon watched Rob. He always had a sort of wariness about him, as if he was expecting to get struck at any moment even though it was just Titans in the meeting. Kon thought it was because Rob needed a lifebond. Cassie thought that he was nuts but when Kon had privately asked Raven about it she'd said that Rob had a hole inside of him that was supposed to be filled by someone else so Kon was pretty confident about his point of view. 

He figured that Rob just hadn't met his lifebond yet. It wasn't surprising. Meeting your lifebond while you were young was pretty rare. Kon kept an eye out for people he thought would balance Rob but so far no one had matched up.

"You might want to pay attention, Kon," Rob said in that particularly pinched tone that meant that he'd figured out that Kon was just nodding and agreeing without listening.

"Sorry," Kon said, glancing at Cassie who shrugged slightly. "What did I miss?"

Rob sighed and rubbed his forehead right above the top of his domino as if Kon had just given him a huge headache. Kon was about to apologize for real but Rob swayed, his mouth dropping open as he made a strangled gasp. On the other side of the room Raven gasped and clutched her head as if she'd just been struck by something horrific.

"Jason," Rob breathed. "Oh my God, Jason!"

"What?" Cassie asked.

"Kon, I need to get back to Gotham!" Rob said so fast that he sounded like Bart instead of himself. "Please! I need to get back to Gotham right now!"

"What's wrong?" Kon asked.

"Lifebond," Raven rasped from Gar's protective embrace. "His lifebond!"

"Please!" Rob said while clutching Kon's shirt.

Even with the domino Kon could see how desperate Rob was. He looked at Cassie who nodded for him to go. He grabbed Rob in his arms. Rob was shaking like Bart when he'd had too much caffeine. As he sped out of the Tower and flew straight for Gotham at the fastest speed he had, Kon could feel Cassie telling Gar to take care of Raven while the others mobilized to follow Kon and Robin before he went beyond their rage and she faded out of his mind. He hated leaving her behind but Rob was acting like he was about to die so Kon could suck it up and deal with being away from Cassie for a little while. She'd catch up soon enough.

They made it back to Gotham in less than a minute but it seemed to be way too long for Rob who pointed across town and gasped "cemetery". That was seriously freaking creepy but Kon flew where Rob pointed. He deposited Rob by an unremarkable stretch of graves, at least until his hearing picked up someone screaming underground.

"Jason!" Rob screamed while scrambling at the earth over one particular grave.

"Move!" Kon snapped.

"Jason!" Rob sobbed, still shaking but moving aside just enough for Kon to get access to the grave. "Please, oh God, please. We have to get him out, Kon!"

"Right," Kon said.

He reached down into the earth with his TTK, plunging deep into the soil until he found the coffin. Grass and soil went flying as Kon heaved and pulled the coffin up out of the ground. Rob barely gave Kon time enough to set the coffin down before he was shoving at the lid, pushing it open.

"Jason," Rob whispered as a guy covered with bruises dressed in a fucking black suit like you put on corpses for burial gasped for air and clutched at him.

"Tim?" Jason asked. He sounded like he was seriously confused. "Where am I? What happened?"

"You died," Robin, Tim, said while tears crept out from under his mask. "You died. You went off to Ethiopia and Joker killed you. I thought I was going to die too but I didn't. I, I kept watching but Batman was getting more violent. I tried to get Nightwing to come back and he refused. He didn't know, didn't know what we had. I ended up going to Alfred and he helped me become Robin in your place."

"Whoa," Kon breathed.

He jerked when Batman appeared out of the night like an avenging angel of Darkness. Kon caught him before he could stride right over and separate Jason and Tim. From the strangled gasp, the last thing Batman had expected was to see Jason alive.

"I don't know what happened," Kon murmured, desperately grateful that he could feel Cassie getting closer, "but Rob was giving a briefing tonight and just flipped out. He said we had to get back to Gotham. Raven said it was his lifebond."

"Neither of them had lifebonds," Batman growled but the growl was hesitant instead of certain and from the way Batman was watching Jason and Tim he could see the bond as easily as Kon could.

"Raven said Rob had a hole inside of him," Kon commented so quietly that only Batman could hear it.

Batman made a noise like he'd just been stabbed. When Kon released him, Batman moved closer to Jason and Tim as though he expected them both to bolt. Jason looked up at him, confusion on his burned and bruised face. Cassie arrived with Bart and Kory, all of them staring at the scene as if it was the most incredible thing they'd ever seen. For once, Cassie didn't protest when Kon grabbed her for a hug.

"We need to get him to medical treatment, Robin," Batman said.

"He's alive," Tim said.

"Not for long without proper care," Batman said and wow, that was one seriously grim tone of voice.

"B?" Jason asked. "What happened to the fucking Joker? Shelia?"

Batman winced and didn't reply as he helped Tim maneuver Jason out of the coffin. Jason made a sound that was a mixture of a growl and a whimper of pain so Kon slipped out of Cassie's arms and used his TTK to pick Jason up and support his body. Both Batman and Tim stared at him but with different expressions. Kon thought that Batman resented the help but Tim, Robin, looked so intensely grateful that Kon ignored Batman entirely.

"Where to?" Kon asked. "Hospital? You guys have some sort of freaky Batcave or something, don't you?"

Both Jason and Robin laughed at that.

"Yeah," Jason said and whoa, he really needed medical care if his voice was coming out bubbly like that. "There's a cave. It's cool."

"Not the Cave," Batman said with enough urgency that he obviously agreed with Kon that Jason needed medical treatment like whoa. "We'll go to the Justice League's headquarters."

That got Cassie pressing close to Kon as Batman gestured for them all to cluster together. Bart was vibrating again despite Kory's hand rested gently on his shoulder. Tim barely seemed to notice anything other than Jason's worsening breathing. He was holding Jason's hand, whispering little encouragements that probably only Jason and Kon could hear. Kon sort of wished that he couldn't hear it because it was freaky hearing Robin sound that terrified and young.

"Seven to beam direct to the infirmary," Batman said while touching something on his cowl.

There was a shimmer of light and then they were somewhere else entirely. Kon didn't take the time to look around, not with Batman pointing towards one of the beds and Clark showing up in a whoosh and wide eyes while his mouth moved as if he was saying "Jason?" even though no noise came out. Kon settled Jason onto the bed as carefully as he possibly could while Tim helped Clark and Batman hook up monitors and then start seriously intense medical treatments that Kon suspected were at least partially Kryptonian.

"Um, will he be okay?" Kon asked Batman once he and Clark backed off. Tim stayed by Jason's side, still holding his hand.

"Probably," Batman sighed. "You got to him before oxygen deprivation could affect him and the treatments should ensure that he heals relatively completely from the damage inflicted on him."

"How can he be alive again?" Clark asked. "He… He was dead. How can he be alive? How did you know that he was there?"

"It was Rob," Kon explained and gladly hugged Cassie who seemed to need to wrap herself around him as if he was about to disappear. "There was this briefing and he gasped, almost fell over. He said that we had to get back to Gotham right then, like instantly, and Raven said something about his lifebond."

"They didn't have a lifebond!" Batman snapped but there was way too much doubt in his expression for him to be as certain as he tried to sound.

"We hid it," Tim said from the other side of the room.

Tim smiled at them, the wry, hurting little smile that he used after a battle when he was so hurt that he could barely move but the others were hurting even more so he tried to pretend that he was okay and that others should be treated first. Cassie's arms tightened around Kon's ribs so much that he felt like he might be bruised. He didn't say a word. Kon was holding her just as tightly.

Batman jerked at Tim's words as if he'd just been slapped while Clark frowned as if he couldn't understand why anyone would do that. Kon wasn't entirely sure why they decided to hide it either. Lifebonds were rare, sure, and some people thought that they were somehow unnatural, but they were something that had been around for as long as humans had records. Heck, Kon had read legends going back to Babylonian times of lifebonds after he and Cassie recognized each other. Still, most people didn't have a bond. Those who did usually found their bond in young adulthood like Kon and Cassie.

"Why?" Clark asked.

"Because I was eleven and Jason was not quite fourteen," Tim explained. He turned back to Jason, staring at his face rather than meeting their eyes. "He hadn't been Robin for long, only a few months. I had been following Batman and Robin around for years, photographing them secretly. Jason caught me at it and we recognized each other instantly. He didn't want to tell Batman because he was afraid that he'd lose the right to be Robin. I didn't want to tell anyone because my parents believe that lifebonds are harmful to the bonds and to society. They would have had the bond broken and we would never have gotten to be together."

Tim sighed, petting Jason's hand as if he was worried about upsetting Jason by telling them about this. Given that they seemed to be fully bonded, Kon thought that he might actually know if Jason was hearing them despite the drugs and other treatments that had knocked him out.

"I was too young to seal the bond," Tim continued after a second, "so we hid it until I was twelve. That was… probably still too young but neither of us was going to risk losing the other and… it was okay. He was careful and I wasn't hurt. It was actually really nice."

Batman made that noise like he'd been stabbed again, prompting a wry smile from Tim.

"I know, we could have told everyone at that point but…" Tim sighed and shrugged. "Things were tense between you and Jason at that point. My parents were gone all the time and it just. We didn't want to tell. It was stupid but neither of us wanted to risk people coming between us because of our age."

Kory pulled at Bart's shoulder, tugging him to get him to leave the room. She seemed to realize that this wasn't something that they had any reason to witness, even though Bart struggled for a second before letting her pull him away. Neither Kon nor Cassie budged an inch. They probably should have but no way was Kon going to let Tim face Batman on his own. The stories Tim had told about Batman's opposition to lifebonded heroes were more than enough to make him stay put even if Clark pitched a fit.

"He shouldn't have gone to Ethiopia," Batman growled as his hands clenched into fists. "He shouldn't have taken that risk, not with you relying on him to live."

"I told him to go," Tim said into the tense silence that followed Batman's words.

"What?" Clark and Batman gasped at the same time.

"I told him to go," Tim repeated.

When he turned to look straight at Batman there was something in his expression that made Batman wince as if he'd been stabbed again, not that Kon was sure that Batman actually would wince if he was stabbed. It was kind of weird to see him react this openly. Clark's jaw had dropped open in shock but it was Cassie who opened her mouth.

"What happened in Ethiopia?"

"Jason died," Tim said so baldly that Kon winced along with Cassie and pulled her back into his arms. "He thought that his parents were dead, you see. The woman he thought of as his mother was long dead and his step-father was dead too. But he found evidence that she wasn't actually his mother, that his real mother might be alive. So I told him to go and find her."

"Why?" Batman demanded. The word seemed to have been torn out of him, raw and bleeding but Tim just stared at him.

"Mother is love and home and comfort to Jason," Tim answered which made absolutely no sense to Kon but it seemed to make sense to Batman. "That's always been 'Father' to me, which I suppose is no surprise. But for Jason the word 'mother' will always mean love and safety and being taken care of. He would never admit that he missed his family, not to you, but I could tell. It was tearing him apart that he might have a mother somewhere so I made him go."

"Why didn't you go along?" Kon asked. "I mean, I know you weren't Robin yet but you could have, couldn't you?"

Tim laughed that breathless little laugh that always made Kon wince because he'd obviously just been a complete idiot. Cassie stiffened in his arms and then relaxed when Kon rubbed her back and Tim shook his head sadly.

"I would have if I could have," Tim said. "My parents were one month into a three month trip out of the country. I was twelve years old. A twelve year old cannot fly out of the country without supervision. Jason was just sixteen. He could do it. I would have set off all sorts of alarms if I'd tried. It didn't really matter at first. Our range was nearly global so I always knew what he was doing and he always knew what I was doing. But… I should have been there. I should have. If I'd been there I could have backed him up and the Joker wouldn't have killed him. I could have talked him out of trusting Shelia when it was obvious that she was up to something."

Jason stirred on the bed despite the drugs and equipment attached to him. Tim whirled to pet Jason's temple which was about all that he could touch besides his fingertips. They all seemed to have ceased to exist. Clark frowned and took Batman by the shoulders, shoving him out of the room.

"Um…" Kon started to say and then stopped as Clark shook his head no.

"Stay with them," Clark ordered and wow, he hardly ever gave orders in that tone of voice. That was the end of the world voice. "I'll deal with Batman."

Batman growled something and tried to struggle as Clark propelled him out of the room but he didn't go for the kryptonite on his belt so it wasn't a real struggle. Cassie breathed a sigh of relief once the door to the infirmary shut. She slipped out of Kon's arms and went over to put a tentative hand on Tim's shoulder.

"Will you be okay?" Cassie asked as if she already knew the answer was going to be 'of course'.

"I don't know," Tim replied and made both Kon and Cassie's world wobble. "I really don't know, Cassie. I never got used to him being gone. Now he's back and he's so hurt… I don't know."

"Dude, he'll be fine," Kon said. "You heart Bats. We got there before anything nasty happened. Besides, they got all the good tech up here. They'll take care of him and he'll be back in action in no time."

"I suppose," Tim murmured. He sob-laughed when Kon abruptly hugged him. "I suppose. Just…"

"What?" Kon asked.

"He was Robin," Tim whispered and then tears started leaking out from under his mask again. "He's Robin. I only became Robin because of him. I wanted, wanted to honor him, to help Batman. I was, was never supposed to be Robin."

"Dude, I already know Nightwing was Robin first," Kon said in his best 'you're being an idiot Rob' voice. "So he takes a new name and we get a new member on the team. No big deal. Heck, it'll be nice to have someone else with a lifebond around. Cassie and I always feel a little weird, you know."

"Or you can take a new name," Cassie agreed while rubbing Tim's back. "It'll be okay, Tim. Even if Batman's a jerk about this, we'll help you both. You've been wonderful to us as we've felt out our relationship. We'd hardly turn our backs on you now that you've got Jason back."

Tim nodded and pulled away from Kon. He stared at Jason for a long moment, petting Jason's fingers in a gesture that had to be unconscious. After a long moment he shook his head and peeled off the mask for the first time in ever in Kon's presence. His eyes were blue and bloodshot from the tears but they didn't have as wild a look as Kon would have expected. Kon smiled when Tim rubbed the tears from his cheeks with the back of his hand. He looked like a little kid when he did it.

"Thank you," Tim whispered.

"No problem, dude," Kon said. "We got your back."


	2. Loss and Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In a world where lifebonds can form between rare individuals, Kon and Cassie help Robin deal with the surprise resurrection of his lifebond and all the fallout that comes from it. At the same time Bruce and Dick have to deal with the bond that they had long denied, in the hopes that they'll be able to help Jason and Tim recuperate.

"Come on," Clark said as he dragged Bruce from the infirmary.

"This. They can't!" Bruce said or at least he tried to say.

Between Clark's insistent hands propelling Bruce away from the others and the horror choking Bruce's thoughts off the words wouldn't come out. He couldn't have missed something this important. He'd worked with Jason for years and then with Tim nearly as long. There was no way that Bruce could have missed a lifebond between the boys.

The smaller conference room up the hall was empty when Clark pushed him into it. Clark hovered over Bruce, frowning fiercely as Bruce paced back and forth. There were noises coming out of Bruce's mouth that made no sense whatsoever. After Bruce spluttered for a long three minutes, thirty seconds, Clark caught Bruce's shoulders and forced him to stop pacing. From the expression in Clark's eyes they were about to have the 'why won't you admit it?' conversation again. Bruce automatically stiffened.

"They don't deserve your hostility, Bruce," Clark said, startling Bruce enough that he blinked. "Both of them have entirely too much to deal with. You have to get this under control."

"…I didn't expect you to say that," Bruce admitted.

"Bruce, focus!" Clark huffed. "Your denied bond with Dick isn't the issue here!"

"I don't have a bond with Dick," Bruce protested automatically.

"No, you don't," Clark said. His eyes flashed red with enough anger that Bruce forced himself to push his emotions away for the moment. "You should. The amount of pain you've put both of you through is horrific. That's irrelevant right now. Tim has been dealing with the loss of his lifebond ever since Jason's death. Now Jason is back and he has the physical pain to deal with along with Tim's emotional pain. You know that his injuries aren't bad enough to cause that level of confusion in Jason."

Bruce winced and nodded. The feedback between lifebonds was a major part of why Bruce had always refused to acknowledge the bond drawing him towards Dick. No matter how much pain denying the bond caused them it was better not to complete it, not to acknowledge it. Dick would be better off without the bond once Bruce died.

He shook the old litany off so that he could focus on Tim and Jason's situation. Bruce didn't know of any other lifebonds where one of them had died and then come back to life. The pain Tim endured had to have been off the charts. It wouldn't have disappeared with Jason's return. If anything the pain probably had fed into Jason only to rebound back to Tim again in an endless cycle.

"We need to get them help," Bruce said, finally meeting Clark's glowing eyes again. "There has to be some way to lessen the pain."

"I can call J'onn," Clark suggested as he finally stopped flying and allowed his feet to touch the floor. "Zatanna might be able to help as well."

"They shouldn't have… shouldn't have hidden it," Bruce grumbled.

"Given your prejudices I understand why they did," Clark growled at Bruce. His eyes flashed red again when Bruce glared at him. "I'm the one who rocks Dick to sleep most nights. I'm the one who has to hear him crying from the pain of the bond you won't give him. Kory couldn't deal with it. Barbara, Roy, no one else has been able to handle it, Bruce. He _needs_ you and you're hurting him terribly by staying away from him. How could Jason and Tim tell you about it when they had to watch you torture both yourself and Dick for years?"

The sheer fury in Clark's voice and expression made Bruce wince and turn away. He couldn't do it. Could not. There were so many reasons why it was a terrible idea. Dick was too young compared to Bruce. They were effectively father and son and Bruce refused to listen to the traitorous part of his heart that hissed that he'd chosen that path because he couldn't take Dick as his lover when they first met. Their lives as vigilantes all but ensured that one or the other would die, ensuring that the other would die as well, or worse still live on with a hole inside that ensured that they'd be nothing more than a vegetable.

"Tim didn't die or become a vegetable when Jason did," Clark said. He smirked at Bruce's surprised look. "You're talking out aloud, Bruce. All of that was out loud."

Bruce winced as he pushed back the cowl so that he could rub his face with both hands. The texturing on his gloves abraded his face, imperfectly distracting him from the turmoil in his heart. Nothing could take the pain away entirely (other than finally bonding to Dick the traitor part of his heart whispered). As far as Bruce was concerned the worst part was that this was proof that he was compromised.

If his partner for years hadn't been able to trust him and then the next partner he worked with couldn't as well, obviously Bruce wasn't trustworthy.

"It worries me when you go this grim and silent at the same time," Clark observed. He'd crossed his hands on his chest in a Superman pose that was as impressive as possible but his head was cocked to the side so he couldn't be as angry at Bruce as it seemed.

"I…" Bruce wasn't sure what to say. Jason and Tim needed him but he was part of the cause of their pain. "We should call J'onn and Zatanna."

"I what?" Clark asked.

"Clark."

"I what, Bruce?" Clark repeated, this time with the glowing eyes and ferocious glare that meant that Bruce would be answering the question whether he wanted to or not.

"I'm… compromised," Bruce admitted after long enough of a pause that Clark floated off of the ground again. "I can't think clearly about this, Clark. I can't."

Clark sighed and settled down again. He put one hand on Bruce's shoulder, squeezing firmly enough that Bruce's armor and the bones underneath creaked. It was a warning and quietly grounding at the same time. Bruce swallowed, completely sure that the sad, frustrated, wry expression in Clark's eyes meant that he was about to say exactly what Bruce didn't want to hear.

"You're compromised because you keep denying the bond, Bruce," Clark said, confirming Bruce's fears. "Tim and Jason will never trust you when they know that you're so against bonds that you refuse to seal your bond to Dick. You need to stop this. You need to stop it and you need to let Dick back into your life."

"If he'd even have me," Bruce muttered while staring at his boots. He couldn't meet Clark's eyes right now.

"Bruce," Clark huffed and this time Bruce's shoulder screamed at the strength of Clark's grip. It was just a hair under the power needed to crush his shoulder. "Dick would be here in an instant if you called. For heaven's sake, _I'll go get him._ This needs to end. If I have to I'll take it to the League and you know how they'll react."

Bruce's head snapped up so that he could glare at Clark. The glare had absolutely no effect because Clark was glaring back and his eyes were actually sparking with the effort of holding back his heat vision. He'd only rarely seen Clark this angry before. Rather than uttering the automatic protest that he'd opened his mouth for, Bruce shut his mouth as he tried to free his shoulder from Clark's grip. He might as well have been wrestling with Mount Everest for all the success he had.

Nodding his head that Clark should go and get Dick was the hardest thing that Bruce had ever done. He did not want to do this. The thought of leaving Dick alone, of Dick living on with a hole in his heart because Bruce had died either of old age or from the risks of being a vigilante, horrified him. It had always horrified him.

The fire faded from Clark's eyes, restoring them to their more normal blue. Clark whooshed away, leaving Bruce to pace in the conference room alone. He had the time to take five steps forward, turn and then take two steps back before Clark reappeared with Dick, Nightwing, in his arms. Dick was in his uniform but the mask and gauntlets were held in one hand as if he'd just gotten done patrolling for the night and had been getting ready to shower before bed.

"Uh, what's up… Clark?" Dick's voice trailed off when he saw Bruce standing there. Clark's name came out as a squeak.

"Tim and Jason had a lifebond," Clark said so implacably that Bruce had to look away from Dick's perfectly blue eyes and the sudden horror filling them. "They sealed it when Tim was twelve. Because of Tim's parent's hatred of lifebonds and Bruce's… issues… they hid it from everyone, even after Jason died."

"Oh my God, is Tim okay?" Dick gasped. "Did something more happen? Is he here? How is he?"

"Jason is alive again," Bruce said. His voice came out in the growliest Batman voice without Bruce's intent. It was the only voice he had available at the moment. "Tim felt it and Superboy got him to the graveyard before Jason experienced any worse damage."

"Oh my God," Dick breathed.

He collapsed against the conference room table as if his legs wouldn't support him anymore. Dick shook his head, staring into the distance as he processed their news. Bruce's stomach clenched. Despite all his effort at denying the bond he could feel Dick's emotions flicking between worry about Tim, fear for Jason, pain at Bruce's not approaching and confusion over why he was there. Eventually Dick turned to Clark, frowning and waving a hand at Clark in a nonverbal question that Bruce understood to mean 'so why am I here?'

"Tim and Jason will not trust Bruce to help them with this entire situation unresolved," Clark said, glaring at Bruce. "This will end tonight, one way or the other. I meant it earlier, Bruce. You will either fully break the bond to let Dick go or you seal it tonight. If you don't, I'm going to go straight to the League and get them involved."

"Clark!" Dick gasped.

"Don't let this go on," Clark snapped at Bruce. "I'm going to go to call J'onn and Zatanna in to see if he can help with Tim and Jason's pain. Make your decision."

Pure terror clawed at Bruce's heart as Clark strode out of the conference room. It took a moment for him to realize that it came from Dick rather than from within Bruce's heart. Or more accurately, a major portion of the terror came from Dick. Some of it definitely came from Bruce as well. He'd never been able to let Dick go the way he should, no matter how hard he tried over the years.

"I don't want to break it!" Dick protested. "Damn it Bruce, I know why you won't give us a chance but it doesn't have to be that way."

"It does," Bruce protested. "It does. Lifebonds… shouldn't be vigilantes. They shouldn't. The risks are too high."

Two shots rang out in Bruce's head, memories of the night his parents died. It took ferocious concentration to push the flashback away but Bruce did. Dick didn't deserve to live that over and over again.

"Neither do you," Dick sighed from his place by the conference table. "The bond would help you with the memories, Bruce."

Bruce grunted around the pain, his mother collapsing to the ground with two bullet holes in her chest. He could see his father clutch his chest, already falling to the ground as well. Warm hands cupped Bruce's cheeks as love and support flowed into his heart. It was wrong. Wrong to accept it, wrong to lean into Dick's strong body, wrong to allow himself to take what Dick was offering.

"I wouldn't want to live if you died, Bruce," Dick whispered. "I've never wanted to be away from you. Not from the first moment that we met. I've always known that you were mine and that I was yours."

"Too young."

"I'm an adult now, Bruce," Dick huffed while nuzzling Bruce's ear.

"I can't…"

"Do this to me, 'force' me to share my life, heart and mind with you?" Dick finished for Bruce.

He pulled back enough that Bruce could see Dick's expression. He was wry and sad, bottom lip quivering from the pain and fear that Bruce could feel battling against Dick's control the way a trapped bird battered against the cage. When Bruce nodded agreement Dick sighed and rubbed his thumbs over Bruce's cheekbones. It felt sinfully good, so much better than anything ever should.

"I already do," Dick whispered. The tears welled up and spilled over. "I already do, Bruce. I always will. It doesn't matter if you refuse to seal the bond. I'll still die when you do. I won't keep living without you."

"No!" Bruce snapped. "You have to live!"

"I won't," Dick said so flatly that it was like a stab to the gut. "I won't, Bruce. I can't. You're the very heart of me and I won't go on without you."

"If I choose to break the bond we already have?" Bruce asked even though he could feel the answer in Dick's heart.

"You'll have another funeral to attend and not even Clark will be able to stop me," Dick replied. "I will not live without you Bruce, even if all I can have is our partial bond and occasional interactions with you."

Sheer, stark agony radiated strongly from Dick into Bruce. It filled his heart, overcame his mind, and nearly drove him to his knees. The sheer pain that Dick felt at the thought of losing Bruce was beyond anything that Bruce had ever conceived of. Dick's arms were wrapped around Bruce to support him but that only made it more necessary that he cling to the younger man.

Man. 

Dick was a man now. He wasn't the bright and shining boy that Bruce had recognized and then despaired of ever claiming. They weren't even actually father and son. Bruce had never taken that final step to adopt Dick. Something inside of him had resisted violently against the sheer thought of taking that role with Dick.

"Yes," Dick breathed. "Not your son, Bruce."

"Never." Bruce shuddered, his father's eyes as he died so vivid in his mind. He'd been untouched, unharmed, not so much as a scratch on him but he'd still died along with Bruce's mother.

"They loved each other Bruce," Dick protested. "They loved each other. He wouldn't have wanted to live without her."

Bruce groaned. He could smell Dick, the sweat that came from a good patrol, faint hints of gunpowder and blood. At some point he'd encountered tomatoes and pickles. Dick's shoulder shook under Bruce's forehead. His arms wound around Bruce's neck, his back, rubbing and touching and generally making it impossible for Bruce to think about anything other than Dick's body.

"You…"

"I want this," Dick whimpered. "Don't say no. Please don't say no. Bruce. Please Bruce. Don't say no."

Another surge of emotion overwhelmed Bruce. It was too much for Bruce's frayed control. He shoved Dick back against the conference table. Dick groaned and slid up onto the table so that he could wrap his legs around Bruce's hips. They both shook as Bruce began to peel Dick's uniform back. Bruce could tell that Dick wasn't allowing himself to believe that the wait was finally over. Honestly Bruce wasn't sure that he'd be able to go forward.

There were two new scars along Dick's ribs plus several bruises that were blooming from the night's patrol. Dick tugged at Bruce's gauntlets, opened his armor and cautiously ran his fingers along Bruce's chest as he helped Bruce remove his uniform.

The urge to pull back and make sure that the door was locked battled against the need to get both of them naked as quickly as possible. Getting naked won when Dick clutched at Bruce as he pulled him in for a kiss that made both of their heads spin. Instinct battled against his training, while the need to own Dick forever battled against his fears of causing him pain. Bruce hated that he was hurting Dick, that he had hurt Dick, that he would inevitably hurt him in the future.

"I don't care," Dick mumbled against Bruce's lips. "I don't care. I want you. I've always wanted you. I will always want you."

Their uniforms were gone, allowing Dick to touch everything while Bruce groped at his belt for lubrication that wasn't the right type. Dick batted his hand away from that and pulled proper lubrication from his uniform. Neither of them stopped kissing. They couldn't stop touching.

It was as though the bond that Bruce had denied for so long had removed any hope of retaining control. Everything that Bruce had read suggested that a bond could be denied, that it was safe to refuse it. Now that he was actually touching Dick, Bruce had to wonder about that. Their hearts pounded out of sync but as Bruce lubed Dick and then slowly, carefully, pushed into him that changed. 

Their breath came as one. Each movement seemed to draw them closer together. Dick's head fell back at the feeling of being so full and Bruce's followed suit. Matching moans erupted from their throats at the same time. The bond swelled and built between them as the pleasure rose and rose, sweeping away Bruce's memories and Dick's fears of being denied yet again. The moment when their hearts began to beat in sync brought tears to Dick's eyes. Bruce kissed them away.

So much love. There was so much love flowing through the bond. He couldn't tell where it started or ended. After a few moments he couldn't tell whether he was Bruce or Dick or Bruce-and-Dick, some new entity that was both of them joined together.

"Yes!" Dick shouted.

"Dick…" Bruce groaned.

Their movements against each other became more urgent as the bond wrapped itself into their souls. He wouldn't survive if Dick died. There was no way that Bruce could have this and then lose it. How Tim had survived losing Jason was beyond him. The moment of their dual orgasms was secondary, a very distant thing, compared to the moment when their lifebond thrummed between them, complete at last.

White-hot pleasure mixed with agonizing joy filled Bruce, echoing out of him and into Dick only to rebound back at Bruce like ripples bouncing off the sides of a container. By the time he came back to himself the sweat on his body was starting to cool. Dick was still wrapped around him in every way. Bruce hugged him, finally allowing himself to hold the boy who had owned his soul for years.

"So good," Dick moaned.

"Your throat hurts," Bruce commented, surprised.

"So does yours," Dick chuckled. There were tears on his cheeks when he finally raised his head from Bruce's shoulder. "We were a little noisy there."

"I… don't remember that," Bruce admitted and felt little shame for the blush that swept over his cheeks.

"Trust me, noisy," Dick said. "We should…"

"They do need us," Bruce agreed.

He found that he couldn't let Dick go yet even though the conference room was cold and he could feel goose pimples rising on Dick's back. Dick didn't seem inclined to let Bruce go either. They held each other until Bruce slipped out and then held each other for even longer. Eventually Dick sighed and nuzzled Bruce's cheek. His cock automatically responded, prompting Dick to laugh with delight.

"We're going to need to lose a week or so somewhere," Dick said while firmly pushing Bruce away.

"At least," Bruce agreed.

Lack of physical contact didn't lessen the bond still thrumming between them. For the first time it made no difference at all. Bruce still didn't want to stop touching Dick. The want made Dick grin as though the sun had just come out.

"Tim and Jason first," Dick said.

"Then we take some time to finish bonding," Bruce agreed.

"I do have a question," Dick said as they quickly pulled their uniforms on. 

Their movements were almost in sync prompting Bruce to wonder if they should redesign their uniforms to be more similar. It might be useful in the field, though perhaps too revealing of their bond. Many of their respective opponents wouldn't hesitate to use the bond against them. Dick nodded thoughtfully, his mind adding belts and pockets and other weapons to his suit and then to Bruce's.

"What's the question?" Bruce asked because the images had distracted Dick from what he wanted to know.

"How are we going to explain this?" Dick asked, his smile going rueful and more than a little nervous. "I mean as Brucie and Dick. That's…"

"Oh God," Bruce groaned. "The paparazzi are going to be horrific."

They both sighed as they headed to the door of the conference room. It was a question that would need to be addressed but that was for later. First they needed to tell Clark and the League. Then they needed to help Tim and Jason cope with what had happened to them.

Hopefully now they would trust Bruce, despite all his mistakes in the past.

"Don't worry about it, Bruce," Dick murmured while hugging Bruce from behind. "We'll work it out. They're family. That's all that really counts."

The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sigh* For those who will want to know what happens next, well, Zatanna and J'onn help Jason and Tim manage their bond. Jason heals up quickly. They continue to be heroes, fighting side by side. Bruce is still an ass but Dick's there to keep it from being too bad. And the paparazzi are horrific, which surprises no one.
> 
> I truly did intend to write the rest of the story but after this long I just don't see it happening. I hope you enjoyed what there is!


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